Friday, July 04, 2008

Heinz in Gay Kiss PR DIsaster (or is it...?)

In case you haven't heard about the controversy, have a look at the Heinz advert that was recently withdrawn because of complaints about a "gay kiss". Here it is.

Yes - exactly - it's not a gay kiss at all. It's an advert which tries to show that their new deli mayo will make anyone like a New York deli chef. So why withdraw the ad? It's the sort of thing you see every day on the streets of London, or on TV, come to that. Why have hundreds of people complained? Most remarkable of all, it has been drawn to the attention of the American Family Association, a powerful Christian group. They emailed over three million supporters, describing the advert as "the kind of ad we can expect to see in California as they prepare to vote on homosexual marriage". Good grief. have they no sense of humour or proportion (No - Ed).

But is it a PR disaster? Not in my view. Millions of people have now heard of a product which they may one day go out and buy. Heinz and their PR company will no doubt be kissing each other all the way to the bank.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.